Saturday, March 07, 2015

Ryder Ripps ALONE TOGETHER

On Thursday night the Red Bull Space was turned into an amazing club/art performance space."Conceived by Ryder RippsALONE TOGETHER exaggerates the relationship between the content creator and content consumer, illuminating the physical solitude of virtual relationships," says the press release.Ryder Ripps, one of the more interesting visual-digital artists in the world, utilized the two floors of the space on 18th street to great effect. Ripps, 28, who created VFiles, has exhibited at Postmasters and New Museum, but in this installation, the press ereview notes, "viewers are confronted by six performers/users – whose collective digital output is harnessed and fed into a singular, frenzied tableau– a representation of the voracious social feed."

Finally, the best aspect of the show is that it contains an element of giving back. Ryder Ripps, a 2004 graduate of one of the city's more interesting experiments, City-as-School, New York's first alternative public school. On Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 11 am to 5PM, the exhibition provide free courses introducing the tools of digital art production such as 3D printing, plant-to-music sensors, coding, and Ableton Live. Classes will be held within Red Bull Studios New York during the course of the six week exhibition. I, in the interest of full disclosure, graduated from City-As in 1989.

The Red Bull Space is at 220 W. 18 street. Visiting hours are Thursday through Sunday, 12 to 7PM through April 12th, except when providing courses for the students at City-As-School.